PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 331 
conifers, ferns, eS etc., the advance guard of the carboniferous 
flora, and having the same general character. From the variety and 
Eey high aeee ess of these plants we must infer either 
the somewhat sudden creation of an elaborate flora, or a great hiatus 
in t history, in which its origin and development are lost. 
hird, — The carboniferous flora of America is ara: the same 
as that of the coal-measures of the old world. Of six hundred species 
- Tecognized here, at least one-third are considered ei with Eu- 
north of the St. Lawrence was then—as it has constantly been since 
the beginning of the palæozoic ages —o out of water, as was most o 
New York, and part of New England. The coal-plants grew in marshes 
world at this period was of the character indicated by these elec 
and that more highly-organized plants had not hat been called in 
existe 
Fifth, —The Permian flora was not represented in any collection 
made on this continent, but from the plants obtained from the Permian 
rocks abroad, it was evident that the flora of that period was, like the 
moll an 
of “eos a walking, flying, carnivorous and her- 
bivorous, in size ranging from the mouse to the whale, they filled the 
Places now occupied by reptiles, birds, and mammals. The vegetation 
the triassic and jurassic periods was as peculiar as the fauna, and 
constituted a distinct chapter in the botanical history of the world. 
he most conspicuous plants of this flora were the cyca ads, —now 
represented, by the Lagopalene, etc., — which had no existence before, 
